Ah, thanks for the clarification. I read this
as her being butt nekkid on the horse. My bad.
Actually, “bareback” commonly refers to having sex w/o a condom (as well as the no-saddle thing.)
The way I’ve heard it claimed, is that girls are naturally drawn to something that’s larger, stronger, and hairier than they are, those being male quantities; in essence, that horses are exaggeratedly male in some ways. Just as big eyed round headed animals look cute to humans because they look babyish.
Note that there’s no reason to assume the girls in question are conscious of anything more than just really liking horses. And it does explain why women aren’t as horse crazy as girls; they can get actual men. And if this hypothesis is true, it seems likely that lesbians would statistically be less interested in horses that heterosexual women; I’ve never heard of a study comparing gender preference and horse enthusiasm, however.
This is mentioned in Tom Robbins’ novel Even Cowgirls Get The Blues. One of the cowgirls claims that parents steer their girls into an interest in horses to distract them from their budding interest in boys - she calls a horse something like a “thousand pound organic vibrator”. It might be a joke, it might be serious. There are so many other downright odd things about female sexuality mentioned in that book that it’s hard to tell.
Using his hypothesis that mostly adolescent girls are attracted to it so it must be sexual, I wonder what he thinks about ice skaters. Maybe they get off having huge bruises from falling on the ice. So maybe they want to be hit? Or gymnasts…hmm…all those poles…
Sheesh.
StG
The idea expressed in the OP is so idiotic that I don’t know where to begin.
It’s true that many parents like their daughters to show horses but the intent is to keep an eye on them. If you are busy practicing and showing/rodeo-ing. you don’t have much time to get in trouble, either with boys or general mischief. At shows, there are many participants to keep an eye on you to report misbehavior.
As an adult rider/competitor, there are many things that I enjoy about the sport but the sexual aspect has never entered my mind. As Ruffian pointed out, if your seat is incorrect, you will be smashing your privates into the pommel which is a very painful feeling (spoken from experience ;)). Riding is the way I enjoy spending my time and I get a feeling of accomplishment from advancing up the levels and winning ribbons. I especially enjoy the camaraderie of the other riders at the barn and at shows. I need a social life other than the Dope!
Girls and women just seem to love horses. They are big, soft and fuzzy creatures with personalities that appeal to little girls’ fairy tale fantasies (no, not sexual ones, you perverts!).
FWIW, GaWaNi Pony Boy speculated in one of his books (Women and Horses?) that the bond had to do with women always being the ones that took care of the critters.
FWIW, that was pretty much Desmond Morris’s assessment of it, too.
That’s where your theory falls apart. Maybe I’m just in a skewed area, but seems like easily half of the women I know who are into horses are lesbian.
Your friend has serious issues. Rather creepy if you ask me. He is saying this stuff about his daughter? Yeah, I’d absolutely back the fuck up.
I got a horse for my 12th birthday. I was about 90 lbs and had a horse that was 600 lbs. It was amazing to be able to get something that big to do what I wanted, it was also pretty damned amazing to go THAT fast and jump THAT high. They are also mostly gentle creatures, respond well to positive reinforcement and yet can be quite spirited. I got a tremendous amount of pleasure from taking care of her, learning to ride her, to get better, to see her get better. And more hair than you could brush in a day! Long flowing manes, big brown eyes, The smells of the leather and hay were also nice. Moonspinner was her name. She was awesome.
Not for nothing, but the feeling of power for an essentially powerless girl was pretty cool.
I would not let my daughter within 50 feet of that guy.
Heard this many times, and always thought it sounded dodgy but was never quite sure. Glad to hear the reasonableness of the world confirmed, sort of.
While you are taking a lesson, you are too busy thinking of all the things on the “list” (position of hands and legs, seat, keeping the horse supple and on the bit, don’t clinch jaw, BREATHE!, where am I headed?) that there’s no time to think “Oh Oh Oh this just makes me want to orgasm!” 
In some events, there is also the thrill of speed: eventing, show jumping and barrel racing, for example. Galloping as fast as possible through the course/ring on a 1000 lb animal, jumping or turning - very exhilarating.
All this brings to mind the T-shirt slogan “you wish you could ride like a girl.”
First off, I’m more than a little repulsed that your friend apparently sniffs 'round his daughter for the smell of aroused pussy. Does that strike YOU as appropriate?
But anyway. Been riding since I was nine. Here’s what perverted jerks never seem to get about horse riding.
- If you do it right, the preessure is nowhere near your crotch - you sit on your seatbones (the back of your butt). This is true of both English and Western styles of riding.
- If you do it wrong (ie ride pitched forward on your crotch) The saddle is a hard surface. In my younger days, when I wasn’t very good and would sort of slosh around randomly in the saddle, the crotch, rather than being stimulated, became bruised. Very painful place for a bruise, let me tell you.
I have heard this too, and always have thought the idea was simply an excuse for older men to sexualize underage girls without seeming too creepy. As we can plainly see though, it’s creepy anyway.
I rode all through my childhood and teen years, mostly bareback, and can also confirm the utter non-sexuality of the experience.
My girlfriend grew up with horses and still rides and that’s pretty much how she describes it. She said that especially when you’re first learning to ride it can be really uncomfortable, even with English saddles.
She said the interest is comparable to the ways guys like motorcycles. And you’re not about to stick your wang in a tailpipe, are ya?
Well, dopers, you have answered my question. Quickly. In large numbers. Emphatically. And as far as I can tell, unanimously.
I must admit I feel better somehow. I would say this restores my faith in, in something, but I’m not quite sure what… the purity of the girl-horse relationship? the nobility of riding? humanity? (nah, not humanity) my own judgment, perhaps?
The information from lady riders about the mechanics of riding & female anatomy was especially helpful.
Regarding my buddy being creepy, yeah, I fully realize he can come across that way. He can say some pretty outrageous things, but he is one of the most moral & ethical people I know. He admitted to me that having two daughters has totally turned him off youngish looking woman after whom he would have panted as an 18-yr old, just because they look too much like his kids. His attitude about his comments was more one of wry amusement than any kind of titillation.
Thanks much, folks.
What they said. I was (and am occasionally still) part of the horsey set and it’s usually when girls discover sex and boys that they ditch riding. A woman’s more likely to get off doing leg lifts in aerobics class than during posting trot.
This made me laugh out loud, which prompted my wife to ask about the reason for the hilarity. Being an actual doctor and all, she got a kind of thoughtful look on her face for a moment, then said that vaginal secretion glands were in fact a kind of modified sweat gland, and that Peak Banana’s comment may be closer to the truth than we thought. This could also explain my friend’s confusion.
Glad we could help out, trupa. I gotta say, we’ve had horses for a while, and they’ve been known to get quite sweaty, especially in the winter months (they grow a thick winter coat, but Southern California isn’t exactly winter coat climate). DeathLlama has never commented that our horses smell of pussy in those moments, but I suppose I could ask him. Who knows–maybe your friend has had the unfortunate circumstance to date lots of women whose crotches reek of horse sweat. Get him a bucket, sponge, and sweat scaper as a belated Christmas gift from me, okay? 
I think my response to your friend and his like would be, “You don’t know anything about women OR horse back riding, do you?”
I live smack in the middle of horse country, teach at a college that offers a degree in equine management, and in my teen-age years actually dated a local rodeo queen. And **Der Trihs ** comes as close as anyone to hitting the finger on the nail on this question.
There is something gender-specific about it, but it has nothing to do with getting off while getting on. Teen-age girls who ride (at least around here) actually seem to have more fun from just sitting on a horse while it goes someplace. Teen-age boys are more interested in doing something from horseback – herding, roping, anything that appears to be work. I have a nephew who hates with a passion “riding fence” on a four-wheeler, even though it’s more efficient and thus takes less time. But he’ll ride fence on horseback all day. His sister, on the other hand, enjoys spending hours just riding her bay gelding along the river bottom, not doing anything in particular, just riding.
Girls enjoy caring for the horse, too. To teen-age boys, the currying, feeding and “doctoring” are chores to be done, a necessary pain in the ass; teen-age girls spend noticably more time caring for their horses, directing their attention to the animals.
I have been privy to a lot of debate, sotto voce, as to whether there is a sexual dynamic between horses and adolescent girls. Nobody seems to really have any statistics to prove or disprove that girls prefer to own, ride and care for male horses (most of which are gelded, which puts an interesting twist in the conversation) over female horses. In general, people tend to think of horses, like dogs, as having masculine characteristics, but that’s not confined to teen-age girls. If the dynamic is there, it’s the same that exists between a teen-age boy and his muscle car. But none of the rodeo queens, barrel racers or gymkhana riders I’ve ever talked to have mentioned it.
No empirical validity to the claim.
–Psychologist